Handy PHP A New PHP Resource Site

Well, I started a new website in September 2006 to try and answer some of the most frequently asked PHP questions I have come accross. The website is Handy PHP.

 

The website is ultimately designed to be a PHP resource sharing medium. Currently there are several Handy PHP functions which I have written that are available to everyone to use and a tutorial on converting from HTML to PHP. I will add more tutorials and functions as I get time but currently, I am working on the website's other features like the ability for members to submit new resources.

 

I chose to use Joomla as the CMS for this website as it is easier to concentrate on my website if I don't have to worry about building a CMS first. Joomla is quite easy to manage and has a lot of features and add-ons. While Joomla has the ability for any memebrs (if set) can submit an article to the website, the system doesn't allow for formating an article according to a set of fields. As a result, as I mention earlier, I am adding a system of forms that members can use to submit a function that will allow for a uniform appearence of all functions submitted. Another set of forms will be used for submitting tutorials. Basically, the forms will take the users raw data and create a formated article out of it for submission. Otherwise the submitter would have to try and mimic the HTML used to format the articles.

 

I seem to have the template, graphics, and css under control with the exception of the site banner. I can always use input on the look of the website but I need ideas and suggestions for the content and features of the website.

 

Features Coming Soon:

Link Directory

User Submitted Resources

Newsletter

Features Coming Not So Soon:

Full Open Source Script Downloads.

Open Source Projects.

Commercial PHP Script Downloads

So come take a look and let me know what you think.

Again, the address is: Handy PHP

 

Thanks,

Its a nice site, although the layout is not that attractive of now, but I believe that it'll be a very good php help site... I'll read those tutorials and tips about php when I have time to really get on it... And do you provide helps as in answering help questions? Perhaps a little Q&A would be good...

I have just visited the site and to be honest with you, I do not really like the layout. It has ads, which should definitely be a no-no if you want to attract visitors to your site, plus it screws up the layout. Graphics wise, I feel you could design something more classy and clean. The design just doesn't cut it for me, I would prefer something would look professional and at the same time stylish. I haven't seen the tutorials yet because you said these were sample data, so I will wait.

Thank you for your review of Handy PHP. I always appreciate honest feedback.

 

As for not liking the layout, I have a question. Is it the position of information and items or is it the color and graphics to which you refer?

 

As far as the ads are concerned, it is really just a fact of life. The large Amazon ad is displayed for guests only. Registered members see a much smaller ad. The ads will hopefully generate enough income to pay for additional features which cost money and eventually, I hope the site will get big enough to require paid hosting.

 

I'm not sure how the ads screw up the layout, I've checked the positioning of everything with multiple screen sizes and resolutions and haven't had a problem. The template was specifically designed to be to be a full width variable size template which oddly enough is difficult to find for Joomla or Mambo. Most of the templates are 800 width templates that have empty space all around in screen resolutions higher than 800 X 600. I prefer to use as much of my space as possible. Since there weren't any variable width templates for me, I had to create one but that also required me to create the graphics and colors as well. So my point is that the colors and graphics may not be great but the template will work for any screen resolution 800 X 600 and up. If you are using a lower screen resolution, I think it might be time to trade that 486 in for a modern computer with a Pentium III or better! The site is best view at 1280 X 1024 which is what my screen resolution is but still looks very good at 1024 X 768. The site probably looks its worst at 800 X 600. But I have to assume that people have either upgraded their monitor in the last 5 years or soon will.

 

As for the "Sample Data" / "Under Construction" warning, it has now been removed. Everything on the website is ready for public use but the user resource submission system is still being developed. Coming soon, I'll have a full external links and resource index set up where developers may list their PHP scripts and webmasters may list their PHP websites. Additionally, a forum will be set up for the website which will allow greater user interaction and provide a place to discuss the website's resources as well and give users a place to ask questions and offer answers. One other feature will hopefully get added in the next week or two is an FAQ. Actually, there will be at least 2 FAQ's; one for the website and one for PHP. The Website FAQ will deal with questions like "I didn't get my validation emal, what should I do?" and the PHP FAQ will deal with questions like "What is the difference between include() and require()?".

 

In addition to being a PHP resource exchange, the website will hopefull answer most questions before anyone can ask them again! I want to provide as much easy to find information as possible. So much of the information for PHP is very difficult to search through to find an answer to your question and if you don't already know PHP, the manual isn't very helpful. It is a good resource for people that have a pretty good idea of what they need to do but need to know the exact syntax required. The user contributed notes for the functions are very helpful sometimes but only after you find the right function!

 

I did manage to get some website promotion taken care of this week. I submitted one of my functions to a resource index and have gotten an increase in traffic as a result. I just submitted two more functions today so I hope that this will be a big boost to traffic. Oddly enough, I also got my wife to add my link to her signature at a coupon forum and have gotten a few hits from that as well. Didn't know that coupon clippers were into PHP!

 

Anyhow, please keep the feedback coming. Thanks!

With regards to the layout, the positioning of the news item is fine, I find no trouble reading it. However it is the design which puts me off when I visit the site. I believe you can come up with a more attractive banner than what you are displaying in the site. The same goes for the menus, they could be perhaps more multimedia-oriented. You know flash, javascript, this sort of things. Or if you do not want any flash in the site, how about making a menu button from photoshop, making it look exquisite. The way the menus look now, they are no different from you adding text on a background, why not construct something which people would have difficulty figuring how you did it. This is definitely an area to improve on especially in aesthetics side. On the layout, the site gives me an impression of you using frames because of the sidebar, I am not sure whether that is the way you designed this site, but it does not look professional at all. Sorry for my blunt comments.

Good luck with the site it seems a good resource. Now the complaints I don?t find the layout attractive. In fact the only thing I don?t like is the color. I would change so much green with more gray and/or white tones. You know, less aggressive, making the site more pleasant for visitors. Besides, the site banner is too big... why is there so much space free under the <php... on yellow?. You can reduce it to the half or make a new one like someone said.

Did you change the layout already? The layout is much alright now, but still have room for improvement... The animated buttons are more attractive and the site is more organise since I last visit... However, I still think the color cannot make it and throws me off the site... I hope the color would change to a more vibrant color or some color that smooth the eyes for surfing... Just my thought, but perhaps I'm the only one thinking this way...

Did you change the layout already? The layout is much alright now, but still have room for improvement... The animated buttons are more attractive and the site is more organise since I last visit... However, I still think the color cannot make it and throws me off the site... I hope the color would change to a more vibrant color or some color that smooth the eyes for surfing... Just my thought, but perhaps I'm the only one thinking this way...

hmm... Not sure what you saw the first time. Perhapes the css file didn't load on your first visit or something because the buttons haven't changed since I started the website except for color. I did have to make a few adjustments to the css to get some of the colors to work better together and some of the spacing was off before.

Anyhow, you aren't the only one that doesn't care for the colors that I have decided to use. I think that I don't mind much though. I may do a few teaks here and there but I'm pretty happy with everything except the site logo.

I was able to get a forum added to the website. It is a very basic forum system with very few options but it allows for the posting and replying of messages so it is enough I think. Basically few problems to deal with later I think. The only real issue with the forum script I used was that the template was hard coded for the most part making it very difficult to adapt it to my website. Most of the forum templating is done now so I went ahead and activated it for public use. You must register to post in the forum but anyone may view it.
Integrating the forum into Joomla was quite simple. Joomla takes care of about 90% of the usual forum operations so having a complex forum system isn't needed.

I still need to design a new set of forum buttons to better suit my taste. The phpbb buttons match ok I guess but I would prefer something better. I guess at this point in time, I really need to worry more about the content on the website and start attracting more visitors.

So far I have submitted 3 of my functions to The PHP Resource Index and it has really boosted my number of visitors. My average number of visitors has tripled in the past 30 days so I guess I am on the right path.

Anyway, feel free to continue to bad mouth my site becuse I find it the most helpful way to make it better.

Maybe its the color that makes the buttons looks more clearer... I'm trying to open the website now but its doesnt seems to load perfectly for me, I can see the falcon image is up there already but the webiste still is loading, even I refresh it already... Perhaps the server is experiencing a downtime or something?Just as I'm typing this the website gets loaded, but it seems like the css file didnt load for it, and it turns up to be a unstyled basic webpage... Its still didnt load perfectly for me... When it does load again for me I'll post my view again...

Maybe its the color that makes the buttons looks more clearer... I'm trying to open the website now but its doesnt seems to load perfectly for me, I can see the falcon image is up there already but the webiste still is loading, even I refresh it already... Perhaps the server is experiencing a downtime or something?
Just as I'm typing this the website gets loaded, but it seems like the css file didnt load for it, and it turns up to be a unstyled basic webpage... Its still didnt load perfectly for me... When it does load again for me I'll post my view again...

Yeah, sorry about the page load problems. That is usually a pretty good time to use the server but some bot stopped by this morning and index 169 pages on my site! So I sent them a nasty email. Who programs a bot to index an entire website all at once? Probably slowed the entire hosting server down.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope next time you can see everything.

Well, I've done quite a bit of work on the content of the website. The presentation still needs some work but all in all, the website is functional. Currently I have 9 custom PHP functions, 1 tutorial, and 2 Joomla! plug-ins available. I've also installed a very basic forum and have started providing support for my scripts with it. Additionally, I have started taking requests for more Joomla! plug-ins. While I don't want the focus of the website to be Joomla Extensions, it has really been a boost to the number of visitors I have received.Most of my visitors just come, register, and download the Joomla! plug-in they wanted but a few stick around and browse a while. I'm hoping that I'll get some word of mouth traffic from these downloaders. While most of my visitors are looking for Joomla! Extensions, I'm also seeing an increasing number of visitors from the search engines and resource indexes. The best part about these non-Joomla! related visitors is that they are looking at quite a bit of the site and are interested in the core subject of the website. Google has done a very good job of determining the content of my website. :rolleyes:I'm still working on a few of the features that the website will need but most of it is operational. The link directory is installed and being populated but not made viewable to the public yet. The user submitted resource option isn't finished yet but I don't see that this is holding anybody back yet. So far, most of the website activity is outgoing only. Not a lot of user interaction so far. I've been kind of busy with the developement of content so I haven't had much time for addition or developement of features. :)My real concern now is user retention and behavior. What I really want is to find out if they are finding the information they needed or not. This of course will require the developement of a content survey script. Like "Was this resource helpful?" questions.I can see what people were searching for and what their search engine query was but I don't really know if what they asked for is what they wanted or if I provided it if it was.Anyhow, I think I know what the site needs visually but what do you think about the content and features?Thanks for any input.

First off sorry for reviving an old topic but I would like to add a few comments. I'm not sure your even around anymore since your last seen status is unavailable. The idea for the whole site is brilliant, There is so many people out there who are looking to learn PHP you would be getting a whole lot of hits. Its too bad that the site appears to be stopped from further development. I think you did a good job integrating those features/sections into joomla (correct me if I'm wrong). I think you did an awesome job as well on the layout since you say you couldn't find an expanding template I do appreciate the full use of window area. I have to give props for some of the articles in there also they are very informative.

I only have a few dislikes that I would like to point out from what I've seen from the site so far.

1. as seen with the attached image the ads in the header mess up your layout but its rare. Only the ads with a bigger height mess it up.
2. Your function http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ is lacking a value attribute for the option tag. I think this is required as names and values can differ.
3. as with the screen shot news articles should have dates listing as it will aid in determining how recent things are and updates made to the site.

Other then those 3 minor things I like the site. Its a a shame its not complete and up to date with more content.